If you've been worrying that NSA leaker Edward Snowden has been living a wretched existence in some horrible Moscow flat, shunned and alone, fear not. A new documentary on him claims that, on the contrary, he's happy and healthy – as is his live-in girlfriend.
According to the film Citizenfour by documentarian Laura Poitras, …

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Re: William Donelson

We were pretty pleased for him in the SF office; good on them. Glad they made it work.

PS: If you're upset about these latest revelations of his private life, I urge you to reread the article all the way to the bottom and apply critical thought. In fact, read the Intercept's article, all of it. These lines from Greenwald are crucial:

"Vital to the U.S. government and its assorted loyalists in the commentariat is to depict whistleblowers as destined to live miserable lives ... But the fact that he is now living in domestic bliss as well, with his long-term girlfriend whom he loves, should forever put to rest the absurd campaign to depict his life as grim and dank."

Re: William Donelson

"'pole dancer girlfriend' headline is a cheap insult. Shame on you Reg. AGAIN."

I knew it, I knew someone would post something like that. As I was walking home from work, and thinking over the headline, I knew someone – someone filled with righteous rage and blinded by the desire to root out misogyny – would stumble down the logic well.

Here's the question – riddle me this:

What's insulting about being a pole dancer? Insulting to you? Sounds like you're being awfully judgmental. Turn the mirror on yourself.

This comes under The Register's "Inquirer-Rolling Stone" subheading. But I love their punning headlines and double entendres. "Trouser snake" should get a Pulitzer. Endless possibilities there. [titillating?....OK, OK, don't throw any more shoes...am straightening up.]

Re: William Donelson

Re: William Donelson

There's nothing wrong with pole dancing. However the way the article is written with the image of the pole dancer, and the title it's clear you are objectifying/sensationalising her as the article has nothing to do with pole dancing.

Lets face it if we changed Pole Dancer for 'Salsa Dancer' you wouldn't have bothered to put it in the article.

Re: @Ben Tasker

@MrXavia

I'm sure there are plenty of women who don't mind being objectified either - I'm not saying it's wrong (it's part of a base urge really IMHO) - what is wrong is painting it that men objectify women and women never objectify men.

Now it makes sense!

And in other news, a new report by Poitras and Peter Maass reveals that the NSA uses undercover operatives to subvert foreign companies and telecommunications networks, having done so in China, Germany, and South Korea.

And Finland. So that's what Elop was really doing! Subverting a foreign company!

Re: Now it makes sense!

That was successfully subverted by a whole generation of middle managers prior to him. While the NSA/CIA may have a nearly unlimited budget, paying all of them to manifest the fundamental incompetence involved in the MeeGo, TrollTech, Symbian Foundation, etc debacle would have failed to pass even their internal budget oversight.l

True, but I think in this case, she's up the same proverbial creek without the proverbial oar that he is. I'm supposing that if the US gets it way, she'll be charged with aiding and abetting a fugitive. Or maybe "giving comfort to the enemy"?

Re: Pottie

"Happy for them both. Nice to see good things still happen in this world." We'll have to see just how long she's going to be happy with his reduced income and circumstances - Hawaii and $150k contractor to, what? How much do helpdesk johnnies get paid in Moscow? Is Pootie giving him a KGB pension? I doubt it's much, she could probably make a few more rubles than him shaking her tail. Does she speak any Russian? Has she even visited Moscow before, let alone know anyone there? You only have to look at what happened to Kim Philby to see where that's going, especially considering how Philby was so disappointed to find 'the Workers paradise' was anything but that.

Meanwhile, I'm sure shepherds like Poitras and Greenwald want to portray the 'whistleblower'/traitor lifestyle in a positive light. They need to in order to make a parasitic living off it.

The US is Over: We recently had the sad spectacle Joe Biden apologising to Turkey and Qatar after stating the well-known fact that many of the US "Allies" are busy supporting terrorist outfits in Syria and Iraq.

One does not apologise to these people (even if one is wrong) and never in public; Imagine Kennedy or Nixon apologising (and they had real crimes to their names, not just words)? Such public displays of weakness just gives the Arab leaders ideas, like, maybe they soon need to secure better allies like Russia or China.

I have to say that having read the Maass and Poitras article, and the documents that accompany it, I am pretty underwhelmed by the depth and scope of the new revelations. Most of it seems to have been known generally by 2012, and all or nearly all the rest came out by the end of 2013.

Re: Funding

Re: Funding

He can make a living for the next 10 years with consulting, especially if he keeps quiet on the subject of who he works for.

He does not even need to take Putin's penny and in fact from a financial perspective that will be the most stupid move he can make.

In fact he can probably work till retirement as security consulting is a positive feedback loop - the more opportunities you get, the more you learn, the more valuable you are. All you need is to get sufficiently high to start the loop. The normal method for this used to be "BUGTRAQ GadFly", but that is proving to be more and more difficult nowdays so people use other means to bootstrap their careers.